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I have a little problem. I'm addicted to cookbooks, food writing, recipe collecting, and cooking. I have a lot of recipes waiting for me to try them, and ideas from articles, tv, and restaurants often lead to new dishes. I started losing track of what I've done. So now I'm taking photos and writing about what I've prepared—unless it's terrible in which case I forget it ever happened.

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Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Of course I didn’t send Kurt off to his potluck lunch with just bread sticks. How could I pass up the opportunity to bake something sweet that would be taken away, shared with others, and not left in the house to tempt me? This gave me the opportunity to bake from The Golden Book of Baking which I received as a review copy from Barron’s. This pretty book, with gold, gilded page edges and a gold dust jacket, covers every area of baking with cookies, bars, small cakes, layer cakes, pies, tarts, yeast cakes, and a few savories items as well. It’s full of classics, some twists on favorites, and a few items that were new to me. There’s a photo of each and every recipe, and the recipes have been graded for degree of difficulty. Most are either a one or a two, but there are a few level three recipes. As I read through the book, I marked pages that immediately caught my attention. The chocolate caramel squares look like homemade Twix bars. The Irish cream cake sounds delicious with the coffee frosting. The Portuguese meringue cake, which was new to me, is a rich cake that’s sliced into layers and soaked with caramel syrup, then topped with meringue, and baked until brown. And, there’s a pumpkin pie with a top crust. I’d never before seen a pumpkin pie with a top crust, and I have to try that too. But first, the apple and cream cheese cake could not be denied. I could tell by looking at the photo in the book that this cake would travel well, and I guessed that with the butter and cream cheese in the batter, it would be even better the day after it was baked.

Cream cheese, butter, sugar, and almond extract were mixed until fluffy, and then eggs were added. Flour, baking powder, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt were sifted together and then added to the butter mixture in alternating turns with some milk. Regarding that cinnamon, I had just read an article in Saveur about different types of cinnamon so I looked around at the grocery store to see what my options were. I bought some Vietnamese high oil ground cinnamon, and it was like a wonderful, super-cinnamon compared to what I usually use. I highly recommend it for this kind of cake or any baked item in which cinnamon is the focus. So, the mixed batter went into a thirteen-inch by nine-inch baking pan that I had lined with parchment paper since I wanted to remove the finished cake from the pan. Two granny smith apples were peeled, yes I actually peeled the apples, and they were sliced and then tossed with sugar, flour, and more of that super-cinnamon. The apple slices were layered on top of the cake batter, and then the cake baked for about 50 minutes.

The serving suggestion in the book was to add a dollop of whipped cream to each piece of cake, and that would have been perfectly delicious. However, since a bowl of whipped cream that would have to be refrigerated would have over-complicated the matter, I instead glazed the cake with melted apricot jam. I cut the cake into pieces and sneakily kept a couple of them at home. My guess about the cake getting better the next day was correct. The butter and cream cheese gave it a very tender crumb, and the tart apples and warm cinnamon flavor combined to make this simple cake a delight.

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comments:

Lisa,This cake looks fabulous.I love any apple cake and with cream cheese, it sounds amazing.I still have yet to bake from the Greyston Bakery book, and now I will have another baking book to drool over!

another apple cake for me to try, hooray! this one's pretty unique--i like the layer of apples up top, and i can tell that the cream cheese does a world of good for the crumb. it's cinnamon-happy, which makes me happy, and i think your impromptu glaze sounds perfect.

Did I say earlier that apple crisp/crumble was my favorite? I may have to re-consider after seeing this! Kurt had to have been the most popular person at that potluck lunch after all this amazing food you provided him. He owes you big time! 8-D

I have always thought that there wasn't enough cream cheese IN baked goods. Lots of frosting but less cake. I cream cheese in rugelach because of the tenderness that it adds. I'm convinced that this cake tastes just as soft.